


Mad Prince Rulf: The Fiancée and the Assassin

by sglottalk



Series: Crown Prince Rulf [7]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Aromantic, Assassination Attempt(s), Gen, Post-Canon, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 10:18:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6113398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sglottalk/pseuds/sglottalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gregor learns one of his eldest son's secrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Gregor looked at Serena Vordarian, niece of the current Count Vordarian. She was remarkably calm for a twenty-two year old woman who the Emperor had just summoned for a private conversation.

She currently lived with her grandparents, Imperial Auditor Vorthys and Professora Vorthys, worked as an administrative assistant for the general manager of the Vorbarra Sultana Metropolitan Transit Agengy, and was a part-time university student. Before she moved to Vorbarra Sultana, she had been something of an apprentice to her parents, who were responsible for managing Vordarian District while Count Vordarian represented the district in planet-wide politics. The well-informed knew that Serena was an informal channel for communicating with Lord Kolya and his wife Charlotte, and that is why Princess Rebecca had invited Serena to a meeting in the Imperial Residence a few months earlier. A meeting which Prince Rulf had crashed.

Since then, Serena and Rulf had spent more and more time doing, as far as Gregor could tell, nothing. Sometimes they talked to each other, but most of the time Rulf just got high on narcotics while Serena read a book. Rulf had also accompanied Serena on a visit to Vordarian District and met her parents - under a cover identity - though Serena did not accompany him as he did his drug dealing in the district. As far as ImpSec knew, they had never even touched each other.

"Serena Vordarian, why do you wish to marry my son Rulf?" Gregor asked.

"I want to be with him," Serena replied.

"You seem to already be spending time with him."

"And there are already rumors about us. It would be better, for me, if we married."

"Do you want to marry him so you can be the Crown Princess?"

"It would be useful, and good for our district. But I have no illusions about becoming an Empress. I know that Rulf will probably be disinherited some day. I would be content with being just Lady Vorbarra, if it comes to that."

"Is Rulf ... _compelling_ you to marry him."

"Not at all," she said. "Some people are trying to compel me _not_ to marry him."

Gregor thought he had a good idea who those people were. "Your grandparents?" he asked.

"Grandpa and Grandma Vorthys are against it, say that I am 'out of my mind'. Grandpa Vorsmythe does not care one way or the other."

Back during the Pretendership, Louis Vorsmythe, brother-in-law of Vidal Vordarian, supported Piotr and Aral Vorkosigan on condition that, should they prevail, his infant son would be declared the next Count Vordarian. Serena's grandfather had been Count Vordarian in all but name for about twenty years.

"And your parents?" Gregor asked.

"They are more open to the idea, but they are afraid that I'm making a terrible mistake. They tell me that my happiness is more important than any political advantage I could gain from this marriage."

Gregor did not need to ask what Serena's cousin Countess Vorkosigan and her family thought about this potential marriage. Miles had been begging Gregor to do whatever he could to keep Rulf away from Ekaterin's cousin.

"Are you in love with Rulf?" Gregor asked.

"No," Serena replied.

Gregor could almost understand a young woman becoming infatuated with Rulf - a young woman like Maya Vorob'yev - and wanting to marry him despite her better judgement. However, Serena did not seem like a lovesick girl, and he believed her when she said she was not in love with Rulf. It was possible that she wanted to do it just for the political reasons - but Gregor did not sense that kind of ambition from her. How could 'being with Rulf' be so important to her if she was not in love with him?

"Sometimes, it take a long time to find the right person," Gregor said. "You're still very young. You will have many opportunities to find love. You shouldn't throw them away."

"Sire, I do not expect to find the kind of love you are talking about," Serena replied.

Gregor felt sorry for her. Why was she convinced that she would never fall in love? However, he did not want to open up whatever emotional wounds she may have, so he moved to a different line of inquiry. "Being Crown Princess, even if you never become Empress, will come with a lot of responsibilities and pressures. Do you think you are ready for that?"

"I do not know if I am ready, but yes, Rulf has warned me about it," Serena replied.

Gregor raised his eyebrow. "What kind of warning did he give you?"

"First of all, he talked about Empress Mireille..."

"Emperor Yuri's wife? She died about a year before the massacre. Most likely killed by a Cetagandan assassin."

"Rulf said more than that," Serena replied. "Before they killed her, they ... they violated her. Her feces were found inside her stomach. They cut open the corners of her lips to make it look like she had a ghastly smile extending to her cheeks. They cut off her feet, her hands, her legs, and her arms, and they cut open her belly and pulled out some of her organs - probably while she was still alive - and after she had died, her body parts were arranged around her ... artistically."

Gregor had never heard that description of Empress Mireille's death before.

"Rulf said that, if I become a Vorbarra, it is possible that, one day, something like that could happen to me too."

What a horrible warning. Part of Gregor thought that Rulf should not have described something so gruesome to such an innocent girl. Then he remembered what his mother had survived, and then what she had not survived. No, for this, he could not fault Rulf. She did need this kind of warning.

"Sire, may I ask a question?"

"Certainly," Gregor replied.

"When Rulf was eleven years old, just a few weeks after his birthday ... was an ImpSec agent found dead in a tunnel beneath the residence?"

Gregor remembered that incident, and felt a knot in his stomach. He checked the records on comconsole to review the details. Captain Andrei Aleikhin of ImpSec had died of lethal injection, almost certainly from the hypospray he had been holding at the time of death. That day, the monitoring system of the Imperial Residence had been tampered with, and between fixing the security breach, and trying to find out who was responsible, which they never did, it had been a while before Aleikhin's body was discovered. Captain Aleikhin had not been assigned any duty which would explain his presence in the tunnel, or the hypospray filled with poison. During the investigation, it was revealed that he had ties with a reactionary group which believed that Laisa had corrupted the Vorbarras and that her children were not fit to be heirs, but that was hardly an explanation. It could have been a suicide. The case had never been resolved to Gregor or ImpSec's satisfaction.

"Serena," Gregor answered. "That incident is highly classified, and you do not have the appropriate security clearance to know about it."

"Rulf told me. It was also part of his warning," Serena said.

"Rulf was just eleven at the time, we never told him and - yes, even today, his security clearance is also not high enough."

"Sire, Rulf knows because ... Rulf claims that he is the one who killed that ImpSec agent."


	2. Chapter 2

Gregor did not want to believe what he had just heard. Rulf, kill Captain Aleikhin?

"The ImpSec agent came into Rulf's room," Serena continued. "He told him that his father - you, Sire - ordered him to escape the residence. Rulf followed him into the tunnel. He felt that something was wrong and, when the ImpSec agent pulled out the hypospray, Rulf grabbed his hand. The agent tried to press the hypospray into Rulf, Rulf jumped, and the hypospray hit the captain's neck."

Gregor sat there, stunned.

"Rulf said, that is when he learned what it means to be a Vorbarra. That any day could be ... the last. That all of the stories of his ancestors, or Yuri's war, of the Pretendership, became real to him.

"He said that, not including yourself, Sire, you were hardly ever a crown prince, Barrayar has had six crown princes since the end of the Age of Isolation. Only one lived past the age of thirty. And crown princesses do not live much longer."

Serena did not need to say that the one crown prince who had lived beyond the age of thirty was Yuri Vorbarra.

Gregor collected himself, and asked "With this warning, do you still wish to marry my son?"

"I've had my own experiences, Sire," Serena answered. "My parents have not always been able to protect me. I will never be entirely safe. I don't know that being a Vorbarra will be worse than being a Vordarian. Even if it is ... I am Vor. That will not make me turn away."

Gregor took a deep breath. "When I asked for this meeting, I expected to persuade an innocent and naïve young woman that she should not marry someone like my son. You are not what I expected, and you know things about Rulf which I do not. You have given me much to think about."

Gregor opened a drawer, pulled out a code-card, and handed it to Serena.

"This card will code you in to my personal comconsole channel..."

***

"Hey Mama," Rulf said.

Laisa was a little relieved to hear that Rulf was speaking with a Komarran, not a High Vor, accent. She found that he talked more freely when he spoke like a Komarran. He only used that accent when - no, she had once overheard him speak like a Komarran to his sister Elena. However, he never spoke that way in the presence of Rebecca, his brothers, or his father.

"Serena told your father about ... what happened. When you were eleven."

The revelation still had not fully sunk in for Laisa, how close she had come to losing a son that day. Or more than one son - would Captain Aleikhin have stopped with Rulf? She could not let it all sink in now, she still had her maternal duty to care for Rulf, even if it was twelve years late...

"Would you like to talk about it?" she asked.

"There is nothing to say," Rulf replied, still speaking with a Komarran accent.

"Rulf, why did you keep this to yourself. Why haven't you ever told us?"

"Why would I?"

"Rulf, we are your parents. We're here to protect you. We loved you."

Laisa immediately regretted using the word 'loved' in the past tense.

"Mama, who the hell would admit to the Emperor that he had just killed an ImpSec agent."

"He was no ImpSec agent, he was a traitor!" Laisa exclaimed.

"I did not know that he was a traitor," Rulf replied.

At first, Laisa did not understand what he meant. Then she understood.

"You think ... you think your own father sent him to kill you?"

"Obviously not. If father wanted me dead, I would not still be alive," Rulf answered. "But when it happened, I could not be sure."

Laisa took in a deep breath. "What kind of father would do that to his own son?"

"Emperors of Barrayar," Rulf replied. "There have been four who've killed their own sons."

"Rulf, that was all in the Time of Isolation. Times have changed."

"Only three of those emperors were from the Time of Isolation," Rulf replied.

Laisa reviewed her knowledge of Barrayaran history. The only emperors who had ruled after the time of Isolation were Dorca, Yuri, Ezar, and Gregor, and none of them ... oh. The circumstances of the death of Crown Prince Edard were a bit mysterious - did Rulf believe that Yuri had killed his own son? Was that tied to his sick fascination with the mad emperor?

"Rulf, I had no idea. I had no idea until today that that horrible man took you to that tunnel, that you had to ... that you thought your father might have..."

Laisa looked for the tell-tale signs that Rulf was using one of his damned drugs right now - and found none. As far as she could tell, he was entirely sober right now.

Rulf shrugged. "Mama, I got over this a long time ago. I am Vorbarra." Then, as if he heard his own Komarran accent, he added "Even though I'm talking like a Toscane right now."

That flippant comment was the last straw. Laisa broke down in tears. If her son had unleashed a tide of long-repressed grief, had raged, had expressed terror, had had any kind of emotional display, she felt she could have handled it. But this nonchalance about the fact that he had almost been _murdered_ , that he had _killed_ a man when he was _eleven_ , that he had ever suspected his own _father_ , that this was all _normal_ and barely worth discussing ... _Rulf, Rulf, my poor child!_

***

Gregor watched a vid taken when Rulf was just a few months old. Gregor watched himself, the proud new father, smiling at little Rulf, who smiled back at him. Rulf had been such a happy baby. Gregor remembered the days when he looked forward to returning to the nursery during lunch and the evenings, to spend as much time as possible with his adorable little son.

Why had he not noticed the change in his son? No, he _had_ noticed that Rulf became more distant, less cheerful. Was it when he was eleven years old? Gregor could not quite remember for sure. He had assumed that Rulf was just growing up, that it was normal. And when Prince Negri, just a year younger than Rulf, had continued to be outgoing at the ages when Rulf became withdrawn, Gregor had just assumed that it was a difference in their personalities.

Gregor wanted his children to have the secure, carefree childhood he himself had been denied.

Gregor had failed.


End file.
